Interconnection system for integrated circuit chips

ABSTRACT

A novel packaging system for VLSI circuits allows low-cost construction and maintenance of complex high density high-performance devices with low power requirements. The devices can be individually created by software means from a small selection of standardizable IC chips by disposing a plurality of chips in leadless chip carriers in a mosaic on a substrate, and configuring them by software to selectively communicate with other chips of the mosaic or even to individually change their operating function. The immediate juxtaposition of the chip carriers in the mosaic eliminates transmission line data skew, and also allows considerable savings in chip space and power requirements by dispensing with interconnection drivers, receivers and bonding pads. The chip carrier mosaics may be assembled into modules suitable for plug-in connection to an interconnecting backplane to create even larger devices, and individual modules can be dynamically tested in their high-performance mode by configuring one or more modules as test modules and either plugging them into modules to be tested or making them a permanent part of the device&#39;s module array.

This is a divisional application of application Ser. No. 118,362, filedNov. 6, 1987, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,072 on Aug. 15, 1989.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to integrated circuits, and more particularly toa packaging system which eliminates the adverse effects of longtransmission lines and of the resulting data skew, and which allows awide variety of very large scale integrated circuits for very highperformance electronic devices to be built from a small selection ofstandard modules containing only a few types of standard chips.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The proliferation of VLSI (very large scale integration) chips for theminiaturization of complex electronic equipment has brought about newkinds of problems which tend to defeat the advantages of VLSItechnology. Among others, these problems include: (1) the large numberof terminals associated with VLSI chips produces complex, expensivecircuit board layouts and long interconnection lines which in turn causeskew problems and require high power consuming, heat-generating drivers;(2) a failure in any part of the chip usually makes the whole chipinoperative; and (3) the vast number of specialized chips available onthe market results in uneconomical short runs and makes it difficult fordesigners to keep up with what the market has to offer.

Prior art in this field includes U.S. Pat. No. 3,611,317 which dealswith printed circuit board layouts but does not teach elimination oflong IC interconnections nor a universal board configuration; U.S. Pat.No. 4,107,760 which shows a flat peripheral heat sink for a circuitboard which does not encounter the thermal expansion compensationproblems solved by this invention; U.S. Pat. No. 4,246,597 which showsan add-on device for cooling a multi-chip module; U.S. Pat. No.4,296,456 which deals with a high-bandwidth IC package but does not showthe leadless I/O serial data connection scheme of this invention; U.S.Pat. No. 4,398,208 which deals with an IC package that uses a multilayersubstrate but does not have the leadless interconnection feature of thisinvention; U.S. Pat. No. 4,437,141 which deals with outside-worldconnections for large terminal count IC chips; U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,215which deals with a flexible mounting support for immersion cooling ofwafer scale IC's; U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,363 which deals with a coolingmethod not suited to high density IC packaging; U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,200which deals with a multi-level modular approach not suited to theleadless packaging of this invention; U.S. Pat. No. 4,551,746 whichrelates to a stacked chip array; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,578,697 which dealswith a packaging method using printed-circuit-type interconnections.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention overcomes the problems of the prior art by providing apackaging scheme that uses standardizable modules carrying planarmosaics of many integrated circuit chips which may be selected from avery small variety of standardizable IC chips. The individual chips,which are leadlessly interconnected and have no need for high-powereddrivers, are then combined by software techniques into large-scalearrays of any desired configuration, in which the interface andcommunications protocol are standardized for all chips. Modules can inturn be interconnected by fiber optic and electrical connectors tocreate very high performance electronic devices of any desired size andarchitecture which can be tested on a module-by-module basis.

The multiple chip interfaces provide fault tolerance capability. Becausethe chip mosaic provides many possible paths from one chip to another,each mosaic can easily be programmed to take a defective chip out of thecircuit with little or no effect on the overall device.

The individual chips are mounted on leadless carriers which can takevarious geometric forms; although hexagons are preferred, the carriergeometry of this invention is equally applicable to squares, rectanglesor any other carrier shapes which have a plurality of sides interfacingwith sides of several adjacent carrier chips.

The leadless interconnection scheme of this invention is made possiblein part by providing, in conjunction with each set of leadlessinterconnections, a serializing/deserializing interface which greatlyreduces the number of interconnections needed from chip to chip. In thepreferred embodiment of the invention, each set of interconnectionsrequires only three connection pads: a high-speed incoming dataconnection pad, a high-speed outgoing data connection pad, and alow-speed bidirectional configuration signal connection pad. Theserializing/deserializing interfaces are preferably formed of galliumarsenide for high-speed operation.

Another aspect of the invention is the provision of highly effectivecooling means in the form of a corrugated sheet of thermally andelectrically conductive material with interdigitated slots. When thesheet is soldered to a ground plane of the module, the slots allow thesheet to accommodate the different expansion coefficient of the groundplane substrate. At the same time, the electrical conductivity of thesheet enhances the power-carrying capacity of the ground plane.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective, partially cut away view of a module rack havinga backplane and carrying a plurality of the process modules of thisinvention, one of the modules being partially pulled out to show detail;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view, partially cut away, of a singleprocess module;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of an alternative embodiment of the module of FIG.2;

FIG. 4 is a detail cut-away perspective view of a portion of the circuitboard assembly of the module of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a bottom perspective view of a single chip carrier of themodule of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of the chip carrier of FIG. 5 showing detailsof portions of the chip;

FIG. 7 is a vertical section along line 7--7 of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a detail vertical section through a chip carrier and thesubstrate of the module of FIG. 2 along a diameter of the chip carrier;

FIG. 9 is a plan view of the circuit board substrate at the connectionbetween two adjacent chip carriers;

FIG. 10 is a plan view of a portion of a mosaic of chip carriers, withtheir caps removed, on the module of FIG. 2;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of the configuration circuitry of the chip ofFIG. 6; and

FIGS. 12a through 12d illustrate various possible mosaics of chipcarriers.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 shows a module rack 20 in which any number of process modules22a, 22b through 22n may be plugged into the female connectors 21 of abackplane 24 by male connectors 23 to form a specific electronic device.The backplane 24 contains the fiber optic and electric interconnections(not shown) necessary to connect each of the modules 22a through 22n toone or more of the other modules 22a through 22n in such a manner as tocreate whatever hard-wired array of modules 22 the particular device mayrequire.

The end 25 of each module opposite the backplane 24 is equipped with aset of fiber optic and female electrical connectors which allows a testmodule (not shown) structurally similar to the modules 22 butsoftware-configured as a test module to be plugged into it end-to-endfor the dynamic testing of each individual module. Due to the extremelyhigh operating speeds of which the system of this invention is capable,conventional test equipment may not be suitable. Instead, known data maybe generated by the device; and the data stored in the test module as aresult thereof may be used as a diagnostic tool in evaluating theperformance of the tested module. Alternatively, one or more of themodules 22a though 22n may be programmed to function as permanent testmodules connectable to appropriate evaluation equipment.

An individual process module 22 of this invention is shown in moredetail in FIG. 2. The module 22 consists of a pair of parallel circuitboards 26, 28 which are reflow soldered to a heat sink structure 30. Theheat sink structure 30 preferably consists of a corrugated, highlyheat-conductive and electrically conductive material which has a largenumber of interdigitated saw kerfs or apertures 32 formed therein toallow for the different coefficient of expansion of the circuit boards26, 28 in the vertical direction in FIG. 2. Air or coolant can flowthrough the heat sink structure 30 in the direction of arrows 33, andout of the FIG. 1 rack through ventilation grille 35 or other suitablecirculation means. The heat sink structure also provides additionalcurrent-carrying capacity for the ground plane 60 (FIG. 4) of thecircuit boards 26, 28.

As best shown in FIG. 2, the circuit boards 26, 28 carry a mosaic ofhexagonal chip carriers 36 (eighty-one per board in the embodiment shownin FIG. 2). The chip carriers 36 are shown in more detail in FIGS. 5through 7. As best illustrated in FIG. 10, the individual chip carriers36 of the mosaic 34 are placed in immediate adjacency to each other(typically less than 0.1 mm apart). They are interconnected by reflowingsolder from microstrips 38 (FIG. 9) into the generally cylindrical tube40 formed by the opposing semicylindrical connection pads 42 of adjacentchip carriers 36.

Coming back to FIG. 2, a driver strip 44 may be placed at each end ofthe mosaic 34 to contain the receivers and drivers for the outside-worldfiber optic connectors 46 and electrical connectors 48 located in thefemale and male connector blocks 50, 52, respectively. Alternatively,the fiber optic drivers and receivers may be incorporated in specialchip carriers 36 which are part of the mosaic 34 but which must then beplaced in specific positions and specific orientations to matchpositions for optical fibers in the circuit boards 26, 28. Six fiberoptic connectors 46 and six electrical connectors 48 have been shown inFIG. 2 for drawing clarity, but it will be understood that their numbermay vary as dictated by design considerations.

Although the invention has so far been described in terms of card-likemodules 22 (FIGS. 1 and 2) suitable for insertion into a rack 20 forplug-in connection to a backplane 24, the modules of this invention maybe carried out in other configurations such as, for example, thecircularly configured module 70 of FIG. 3. In that configuration, thefiber optic and electrical connectors (not shown) of the module 70 maybe on the rim of module 70 or at some other convenient location.

The circuit boards 26, 28 are shown in more detail in FIG. 4. Each ofthe boards 26, 28 consists of two insulating layers 54, 56 preferablycomposed of aluminum nitride which separate a pair of conductive groundplanes 58, 60 from a conductive power plane 62. In the center of eachchip position of the mosaic 34 (FIG. 2), the ground plane 58 is cut outto allow a solder pad 64 electrically connected to the power plane 62 toprotrude through the ground plane 58. The ground plane 60 is soldered tothe heat sink 30, and the solder pads 64 are preferably centered (line65) along the solder lines (indicated by dot-dash line 67 in FIG. 4)connecting the heat sink 30 and the ground plane 60 on each side of themodule 22. The ground planes 58, 60 are connected to each other byconnector pins 66.

FIGS. 5 through 7 illustrate the leadless chip carriers 36 which formthe mosaic 34. In the preferred embodiment, the chip carriers 36 arehexagonal in shape because a hexagonal mosaic is efficient and easy toassemble (and also tends to align itself during reflow soldering), butother mosaics may also be used as shown in FIGS. 12a through 12d.

In this respect, it should be noted that from an assembly point of view,the orientation of any individual chip carrier 36 is immaterial, as itsconnection pad sets 72 will always match the positions of every adjacentcarrier's connection pad sets. The same is true of the arrangement ofFIG. 12a (which however requires eight connection pad sets per carrierinstead of six); that of FIG. 12b (in which each carrier has only twopossible orientations); and that of FIG. 12c (in which each chip cancommunicate with only four other chips instead of six). By contrast, inthe arrangement of FIG. 12d, two of the four possible orientations ofany carrier would result in a mismatch, so that more care would have tobe exercised in assembly.

Returning now to FIG. 5, the chip carrier 36 includes a tray-shaped body73 for receiving an integrated circuit chip. As a matter of generalreference, the body 73 may have a diameter on the order of onecentimeter. As seen from the bottom in FIG. 5, the body 73, which ispreferably made of aluminum nitride, has a metallic ground plate 74which is reflow soldered to the ground plane 58 (FIG. 4) of the module22. The ground plate 74 is spaced from the semicylindrical metallicconnection pads 42 which extend upwardly from the base. It is also cutout in the center to form a metallic power connector plate 76 which isreflow soldered to the power pad 64 of FIG. 4. Connections 78, 80 (FIG.7) extend from the ground plate 74 and power connector plate 76 throughthe body 73 to appropriate contacts on the integrated circuit chip die82 mounted in the cavity of body 73.

As shown in FIG. 8, a ring-shaped depression 84 formed in body 73opposite a similar depression 86 in the substrate 54 of the circuitboard 26 or 28 (FIG. 4) is preferably provided to prevent solder fromflowing across the gap between ground plate 74 and power connector 76.

FIG. 6 shows the details of the chip die 82 and its interconnection withthe connection pad sets 72. The die 82 carries in its center aprocessor, memory, or other functions circuit 88 capable of beingstatically and dynamically configured, through multiplexers andelectronic switches, to receive data from a selected set of connectionpad sets 72, carry out a computational function, and transmit datathrough the same or another selected set of connection pad sets 72. Ifthe circuit 88 is to serve merely as a transit path for the data withoutperforming any computational function, multiplexers in the circuit 88can be set to route data directly from one set of connection pad sets 72to another with minimum delay. The manner in which this is done will bediscussed in more detail in the description of FIG. 11. In the preferredembodiment of the invention, each connection pad set 72 contains threecontacts 42 (FIG. 5), one of which handles incoming high-speed data,another outgoing high-speed data, and the third bidirectional slow-speedconfiguration signals.

Surrounding the function circuit 88 are a voltage impedance interface 90with contacts 92 for the slow-speed static configuration input/output 94of FIG. 11, and a high-speed data interface 96 which serves as the datainput/output 98, 100 of FIG. 11. The high-speed data circuitry carriesclock and data signals simultaneously for each connection pad set 72 (atwhich the arrows indicate the direction of signal travel), the interface96 carries a corresponding set of contacts including an input contact102 and an output contact 104. In accordance with one aspect of theinvention, the interface 96 also carries a serializing shift register106 and a deserializing shift register 108 for each set ofinterconnections 72. If the function circuit 88 is a parallel device, asit would usually be in high-density high performance systems,serializing the chip-to-chip connections allows the number of connectionpads 42 in each set of interconnections 72 to be reduced to a manageablenumber, considering the small physical size of the chip carriers 36.

For high-performance devices, it is desirable to form at least thehigh-speed interface 96 and possibly the function circuit 88 of galliumarsenide alone, or of gallium arsenide grown on a silicon base. Thesilicon provides a superior thermal path for heat transfer out of thecircuit die 82. For lower speed devices, however, silicon alone would bea satisfactory material.

In accordance with conventional integrated circuit chip construction,the leads 110, shown schematically in FIG. 6, are embodied in a leadframe 112 (FIG. 7) which is assembled with the die 82 and carrier body73 by a conventional tape automated bonding assembly process. Aseparator 114 (FIG. 7) and cap 116 complete the assembly of chip carrier36.

FIGS. 9 and 10 illustrate the assembly of the chip carriers 36 into themosaic 34. The carriers 36 are placed into the mosaic 34 as shown inFIG. 10, with a gap of about 0.1 mm between them to permit inspection ofthe solder connections. Underneath each set of connection pad sets 72,the ground plane 58 is cut out as shown at 117 in FIG. 9 to form thesolder-covered electrically isolated microstrips 38. When the carriers36 are in place and the module 22 is reflow soldered, the solder fromstrips 38 rises in the cylindrical tube 40 formed by opposing connectionpads 42 and joins them together both physically and electrically. At thesame time, as seen in FIG. 8, the carrier's ground plate 74 and powerconnector plate 76 are mechanically and electrically joined to theground plane 58 and power pad 64, respectively, of the circuit board 26or 28.

FIG. 11 shows, in block form, the organization of each chip 82. Inaccordance with the invention, the operation of the module 22 involvesboth a static and a dynamic selection of the configuration of each chip82. Slow-speed static configuration selection signals are applied toeach chip 82 through its six contacts 92 (FIG. 6). These signalsestablish the basic configuration of the mosaic 34 (usually done duringinitialization on power-up starting from a known interface) by definingpaths which data signals follow as they progress through the mosaic 34.Among other things, this arrangement allows the static configuration ofthe mosaic 34 to be changed from time to time to route data around anychips 82 which might be defective, without taking the module 22 out ofservice.

Dynamic configuration of the chip 82 is accomplished by the receivedhigh-speed data itself. Each of the six input contacts 102 of theinterface 96 (FIG. 6) is connected at the data input 98 of FIG. 11 to aseparate receiver 122 which can be connected to any one of thedeserializing shift registers 108 or drivers 142 to bypass the functioncircuit 88) by multiplexers 124. The multiplexers 124 are staticallyconfigured by the reconfiguration control 126 over lines 128. The shiftregisters 108 are statically configured by the control 126 over lines130, and the data received by them is in turn used to operate thecontrol 126 dynamically over lines 132.

The function circuit 88 can be both dynamically and staticallyconfigured by control 126 over lines 134 to change the operationalarchitecture of circuit 88 as desired. At the output of circuit 88, theserializing registers 106 interact with control 126 as do shiftregisters 108, but over lines 136 and 138, respectively, for static anddynamic reconfiguration. The output multiplexers 140 are staticallyconfigured by control 126 via lines 141 to connect any given serializingregister 106 or receiver 122 to an output driver 142 associated with anoutput contact 104 (FIG. 6) of the output interface 100 (or with one ofthe multiplexers 124 of FIG. 11 for reentry into function circuit 88).

It will be seen that the present invention provides a packaging schemewhich allows low-cost manufacture and maintenance of highly complex, yetlow-power high performance devices requiring only a small selection ofsimple, inexpensive standardized components which can be quicklyconfigured into any desired form by software alone. In another aspect,the invention provides a communication scheme and a high-performanceprocessor architecture, all based on controlling the configuration ofmultiple standarizable chips by software techniques. At the same time,the system of this invention eliminates the problem of data skew anddelay in VLSI devices by eliminating leads between chip carriers, andmakes the devices built with the inventive system easy to test andrepair, sometimes without even taking them out of service.

The leadless architecture of the module of this invention permits apower reduction of up to 90% per chip, while the omission ofinterconnection drivers, receivers and bonding pads saves on the orderof 55% of the normally required chip space. The ability of the chipcarrier to accomodate up to 0.15 W per chip is thus adequate to housechips which would normally dissipate seven to ten watts, or even up tofifteen watts.

I claim:
 1. A modular high-performance integrated circuit device,comprising:(a) a module rack having a backplane; (b) means forreleasably connecting a plurality of modules to said backplane, saidmodules including circuit boards carrying a mosaic of interconnectedleadless chip carriers, said modules further having external-deviceconnectors formed thereon; wherein each of said carrierscomprises:connection pads so arranged on the periphery of said carrierthat each connection pad, except for those connection pads on theperiphery of the mosaic, is immediately adjacent to a correspondingconnection pad of another carrier of the mosaic; and an integratedcircuit chip mounted on said carrier; wherein: said chips, carriers, andmosaic are so configured as to allow each chip to selectively transmitand receive data through said connection pads to and from a chip on anyadjacent carrier in said mosaic; and immediately adjacent ones of saidconnection pads are electrically connected to each other without the useof intervening wires or leads; and (c) means in said backplane forconnecting selected modules to selected external-device connectors ofselected other modules.
 2. The device of claim 1, in which said modules,when connected to said backplane, have exposed connectors disposed toenable other modules of like structure to be connected thereto.